


Anything For You

by Loloorenn



Category: Criminal Minds (US TV)
Genre: Anxiety, Asthma, Asthma Attacks, Clooney is a pitbull, Derek Morgan Needs a Hug, Domestic Fluff, Ellie is on a first name basis with Hotch and it annoys Derek, Everyone loves Ellie, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Happy Derek Morgan, Hugging, Hurt Derek Morgan, Hurt/Comfort, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, I love him, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Implied/Referenced Self-Harm, It gets a little sad, Love, Past Child Abuse, Protective Derek Morgan, Sleepy Cuddles, Sleepy Kisses, Team as Family, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, Worried Derek Morgan, a lot of hugging, and he gets many, but there's cuddles, excited Spencer Reid, inhaler, that should be a tag
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-03
Updated: 2020-12-03
Packaged: 2021-03-09 20:40:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,999
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27862461
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Loloorenn/pseuds/Loloorenn
Summary: Snippets of Derek's life with Eleanor (or Ellie), sleepy cuddles, dealing with his past, some good 'ole asthma attacks. Generally super fluffy.
Relationships: Derek Morgan/Original Female Character(s)
Kudos: 34
Collections: Eleanor and the BAU





	1. Chapter 1

“Hey mama, it looks like I’m not going to be making it home tonight” Derek sounds guilty when he calls Eleanor on her lunch break at the school. She rolls her eyes, reaching for her water to wash down a cracker covered in cheese. 

“No offence sweetheart, but I knew from the minute Aaron called you this morning.” Derek’s chuckle translates poorly across the crackly line, he must be driving.

Derek shifts the phone in between his shoulder and ear, judging by the muffled noises. “It’s still wrong you’re on a first name basis with my boss.” He’s smirking, she can tell, and she bites back a grin herself. 

“You’re just jealous Aaron and I are besties.” Derek snorts and she can feel him shaking his head. At least he’s laughing again, better than the guilty drawl when she first picked up the phone. 

She gets up to throw away her trash, seeing her break is almost up. “I’m telling him you said that.” She can hear a car door close and the muffled voice of one Dr. Spencer Reid. 

“Tell my other bestie I say hi.” Derek bitterly relays her message, and Eleanor giggles at Spencer’s enthusiastic ‘Hi Ellie!!’ And Derek’s subsequent groan. 

“Baby you’re supposed to like me the most, isn’t that how this works?” He’s pouting now, and only half teasing. For a man as outwardly confident as Derek Morgan, he’s kind of a big softie at heart. 

Eleanor rolls her eyes, “I love you the most Honey, isn’t that enough?” She hears Spencer coo mockingly at Derek and realizes with a flush that he’s put her on speaker. 

“Yeah, I guess that’ll do.” 

Eleanor waits a moment, listening to Spencer and Derek bicker playfully about how soft he is for “his girl” before the car falls quiet again. “Where’re you boys headed?”

“Nevada.” The distaste is audible in his voice and she has to stifle another laugh. Derek hates Nevada with a burning passion. 

When she opens her mouth to respond, Eleanor hears her name paged over the intercom and sighs. Duty calls. “Disgusting. Be safe, all of you. Pass my undying love to your other girlfriend for me. I’ll see you when you get back.” 

Derek laughs again, a sound Eleanor could never get tired of. “For sure baby, I’ll tell Garcia you say hi.”

The two exchange ‘love you’s’ as Eleanor makes her way back to her room and she tries to ignore the empty worry in her gut once she hangs up. She knew what she was getting into when he got called away on their first date well over four years ago. But when a man like Derek Morgan walks into your life, you don’t let him walk out. 

Three long days of following the news in Nevada with no one but Clooney for company at night. Three days isn’t the longest time Derek has been gone before, but it’s certainly not always enjoyable. Clooney misses him too, probably more than Eleanor does, since she understands why he left. He spoke on the news on the second day and Clooney’s adorable pitbull face perked up. 

On the third night, or early in the morning of the fourth day, Eleanor wakes suddenly to Clooney propelling himself off of the bed. 

“Shh, Shh buddy hi! Hi buddy, shh, don’t wake our girl up.” Derek’s whispers set her immediately at ease. She hears him gently thumb Clooney’s belly in the way he loves and whispers about how much he missed the black and white dog. 

Eleanor rolls over, cracking her eyes open to watch the reunion “little late for that, Morgan.” She grumbles, entirely putting on a grumpy show. She’d always rather be awake when he comes home. 

“Sorry Baby girl.” He winces and leans over to press a kiss to her forehead. “Let me shower and we can both get some sleep okay?” She nods and leans up to capture his lips in a real kiss, before dropping back into the cushy mattress. 

When Derek returns, fifteen minutes later with steam billowing out of the bathroom, he drops immediately into bed beside Eleanor, pulling her close while she tucks the blankets she had pulled back around them.

“I missed you” she murmurs against his lips, hitching one leg up over his and wrapping her arm around his stomach. 

He turns his face to her neck, smiling and holding her tightly against him. “I missed you too, sweetheart.” And that’s Derek for you, always with the pet names. Eleanor pulls back just long enough to slowly kiss him again, savouring the feeling for just a moment, before pillowing her head on his chest and closing her eyes. For the first time in almost four days, both Derek and Eleanor slept soundly. 

Derek Morgan has never been happier than he is now with Ellie. She’s the kindest, softest person he’s ever met, and she’s forgiving to a fault. There’s not a mean bone in that girls body. She’s often quiet and poised, put together and respectable where he’s loud, cocky. He demands respect, she simply requests it. It works, and everyone can tell that the gentle woman at his side is exactly what he needs. 

“Hey, Morgan, would you and Ellie like to come to a museum with me this weekend? It’s the grand opening of medical supplies across the world through the years, and I think she would really enjoy it.” Spencer practically ambushes Derek when he steps off of the elevator. Derek pointedly takes another swig of his coffee. 

Spencer rocks between his toes and his heels, impatiently awaiting a response and far too excited for a Monday morning. “Sure kid, I’m sure she’d love that, she’s free Saturday, does that work?” Derek knows Eleanor’s schedule like the back of his hand, every couple weeks they plan a night for Derek to request off, or off unless absolutely necessary, and have a date night. 

Spencer lights up like a Christmas tree. “That’s perfect! I’ll text her!” He excitedly rushes back to his desk, probably typing out a message to Derek’s girlfriend of four years at the speed of light. Derek shakes his head fondly and makes his way over to his desk. Emily gives a distracted smile and wave, already buried in paperwork. He drops off his coat and bag at his desk before picking up the other coffee in his tray and heading down the hallway. 

“Hey baby girl, how’s my fine lady this morning.” He doesn’t bother knocking, letting himself into Penelope’s office casually. She sits in her chair already, typing away, but stops when Derek announces his presence. 

She’s grinning, and reaching for the coffee before she fully turns around “Derek Morgan you sure know how to treat a lady.” She clutches her coffee and he leans down to give her a kiss on the cheek. 

“So I’ve been told.” He muses, breaking out in laughter when Penelope swats at him for his cockiness. He blows her a kiss and ducks out of the office again, ready to settle in for a, hopefully, uneventful day of work. 

Unfortunately, an “uneventful Day” at work turned into an eventful three days of work, across the country. Thankfully, they caught the Unsub before she could hurt anyone else, and everyone got to return home with nothing worse than some bumps and bruises. It sounded worse than it feels. The news only captured part of the story, but going by the number of worried calls and texts from his girlfriend, the part it covered made the situation sound much worse than it is. The jet lands at quarter after two in the morning, and instead of departing to an empty, cold tarmac, he’s greeted by an over-excited pitbull, and an overly worried girlfriend. 

“I’m sorry baby, I know you’re probably exhausted but, I just couldn’t wait at home any longer and when you told me you were coming back tonight, I just, I had to.” Ellie practically tackles him once Clooney stops jumping. He’s more than aware that his entire team is watching as he swoops her up in a tight hug. 

Ellie clings tightly to him and shivers. “Shh, sweetheart it’s okay. I’m glad you’re here.” She clings tighter for a moment before stepping back and running her hands down his arms, just assuring herself that he’s here, and he’s okay. “I’m alright.” He reassures her quietly, reaching out to cup her cheek and stroking his thumb over her cheekbone. She steps closer again, leaning up for a soft kiss before turning her attention to Clooney, who has found Hotch to be his new best friend. 

“Off Clooney! Sorry Aaron!” Ellie laughs, jogging a couple steps to pull the 80 pound ball of love and affection off of Derek’s boss, who, to his credit, doesn’t even look slightly annoyed. 

Hotch smiles tightly, reaching out to pet Clooney’s head gently, “it’s alright Eleanor, he’s fine. How are you?” Derek again rolls his eyes at his boss and his girlfriend being on a first name basis, it’s more for show than anything else. He loves that his family and his girl are friends. 

“I’m better now, although I wasn’t thrown around in a shipping container Aaron, how are you? Are you hurt?” She turns her concern from keeping Clooney down to making sure Hotch is okay. He smiles, a genuine smile and reaches out to grasp her shoulder gently. 

To everyone’s surprise, Hotch pulls Ellie into a gentle hug. “I’m quite alright, thank you Eleanor.” He pats her shoulder again before moving past her “You all have a good night, don’t come in until 9:30 tomorrow okay?” He heads towards his car with a wave. 

Ellie turns her attention to JJ, wrapping her in a hug and appreciating her safety as well. “El, I wasn’t even there to get thrown around!” JJ laughs “If anything, It’s Reid and Prentiss you should be crushing!” 

“I don’t care Jay, you were out there and that’s enough for me.” She really is the sweetest, Derek muses, watching his girlfriend make her rounds with her friends, making sure each and every one of them is safe and unharmed. Clooney is loving the attention, running between himself and Reid for pats. 

Emily accepts her hug without complaint, “I might take you up on those Epsom salts you offered last week.” Derek winces when he remembers the sound of Emily hitting the wall, it’s definitely going to be sore in the morning. 

“Of course Em.” Eleanor turns her attention to Reid, half holding her hands out and letting him decide if he wants to be hugged right now. His touch aversion has gotten significantly better since joining the team, and especially in the last few years, but Ellie would never push his comfort zone. 

Spencer smiles softly, opening his own arms and stepping into her embrace. “Thank you.” He tells her quietly 

“Of course Spence.” She murmurs back, pulling back and making her way back into Derek’s waiting arms. 

He leans down to kiss her temple “I’ll meet you and Clooney at home okay baby girl? I’ve gotta stop by the BAU.” Ellie tucks a strand of teal hair behind her ears, an art project from last week, and smirks up at him. 

“Alright, say hi to our girlfriend for me.” She jokes, cutting off his laughter with another kiss before she crouches to get Clooney’s attention. 

He races over, a blur of black and white that crashes into her. “I’ll tell her, you two drive safe.” He stoops to scratch Clooney’s ears and rile him up a little before leaving for his car. Ellie waves to their friends again and guides Clooney back to her car.


	2. Chapter 2

Derek let’s work get in the way of a lot of things, considering it takes up two thirds of his life, and bleeds into the last third, it’s important for him to be invested in the job he does, and it’s important to drop most things, plans, and people to preserve the lives and safety of others. One of the very few things he puts before his job, is his girlfriend, Eleanor. 

For him, Ellie is the most important part of his life, endlessly understanding about his job, and effortlessly befriending his coworkers. Fortunately, his work doesn’t really affect their relationship. The fact that sometimes he has to leave doesn’t really bother her, instead, it just means they make the most of their time together. She prefers calm communication to fighting, so they rarely argue. Overall, they would both say their relationship is rock solid, and he refuses to let his job get in the way of that. 

Which means, when his phone goes off during a briefing for a local abduction, he doesn’t hesitate to take it. 

“Hey babydoll, what’s up?” Ellie doesn’t call during work hours, he calls her on her lunch. But he fights his own nerves, not going through possibilities before his girlfriend gets a chance to speak. 

He shouldn’t have fought so hard, he realizes, when there’s sniffling on the other line. “Derek, I, I can’t breathe and I can’t find my inhaler and I’m starting to really freak out.” She tries to sound calm, but Derek can hear the panic behind her voice. 

“Shit.” He knows exactly where her inhaler is, in his car still from their weekend hike. Her backup inhaler is in his emergency pack he had forgotten in the office after Emily banged her arm up pretty bad on a broken glass “okay sweetheart, hold on. I’m on my way now. Just sit straight for me, keep your shoulders back. You’re gonna be okay baby, try and stay calm” 

He doesn’t bother going back into the briefing room, he’ll deal with Hotch later. Although, the looks he gets from the older man through the blinds as he grabs his jacket from his desk tells him he shouldn’t worry too much about it. Clearly something is wrong if he’s leaving without saying a word to the rest of the team. 

Derek drives fast enough to get himself a ticket for stunt driving, the missing inhaler clenched tightly in one hand, he skids to a stop against the curb outside of their house and is out of the car before it fully stops, rushing with long strides up the front steps. It says a lot about Ellie’s condition when Clooney doesn’t meet him at the door. 

“Ellie? Baby?” He calls out, getting a sharp bark in response and sees Clooney at the top of the stair case. “Good boy Clooney!” Derek takes the stairs three at a time and peels around the corner, past the black and white dog to his girlfriend sat against the wall. 

Here eyes are close, tears streaming down her face and lips pursed in a tight o as she tries to get enough air in slowly. Her whole body trembles and her wheezing is audible from the end of the hallway. “Ellie, sweetheart I’m right here, I have your inhaler, can you take it?” He asks her gently, reaching out to rub her shoulder. 

She shakes her head jerkily, squeezing her eyes shut harder and breaking into a fit of wheezy coughs. “Okay baby girl, I’ve got you, I’ve got you.” Derek gathers her into his arms, sitting her upright again and shaking the inhaler with his free hand. “Try and exhale for me.” He murmurs, bringing the inhaler up as she exhales. “Okay, slow deep breath in. You’re doing great sweetheart.” Ellie starts to breathe in and Derek presses the dispenser on the device, listening to the spray and watching Ellie struggle to breathe in properly. “

“Good job sweetheart, hold that as long as you can.” He shakes the canister again, readying a second dose and Ellie breathes out slowly and takes a few breaths before turning her head towards the inhaler again, and repeating the process. After this exhale, Ellie stops shaking so much, she cracks open mascara ringed eyes and takes a shuddery, less wheezy breath. 

“Th-thank you.” Her voice cracks, and still sounds hoarse, but Derek’s glad to hear it. He sits down with her against the wall, wrapping an arm around her shoulders and pulling her tight into his side, absorbing her tremors without complaint. 

He presses a gentle kiss to her temple. “Shh, you don’t hafta thank me.” He murmurs to her. Ellie clings hard to him, pulling herself closer until she’s practically on top of him. Derek stretches his legs out and pulls his girl onto his lap, wrapping both arms around her, loose enough she can still breathe, and kisses the top of her head. 

“Still.” She mutters back, burying her face in his throat and relaxing against him. Stroking along her spine, he relaxes himself, tension he didn’t know he was holding flowing freely from his body. 

“I’ll always come when you call.”


	3. Chapter 3

Nothing is ever easy all of the time, especially not a job like Derek’s. He looks the worst of humanity in the eyes every single day and tries to come home like nothing happened. This time he left at five in the morning, heading straight for the jet with a hastily packed go-bag and a distracted kiss. He was gone for almost a week, and the entire week was radio silence. That alone isn’t uncommon, Ellie knows that, more than anything, he needs to focus on his job while he’s working, to keep himself and everyone around him safe. What was uncommon was that he didn’t call when the case was closed, when they boarded the jet, or when they landed. He simply sent a text. 

Home safe. Headed to BAU. 

Derek does a lot of things, but he always calls when he lands, no matter what mood he’s in. Ellie feels her stomach drop, something happened. 

Okay, I’ll see u when u get home. I love you.

She texts Derek back, rubbing Clooney’s stomach absentmindedly before getting up to make herself a tea, not knowing how long he could be. 

Four hours, that’s how long it took for Derek to walk in their front door, go bag in hand and shoulders slumped. He flashes her a smile that doesn’t reach his eyes and walks past without a word, shutting the door to their bedroom behind him. Ellie hears him turn their shower on and sighs to herself.

She busies herself with making tea and some of those expensive cookies Derek rarely indulges in. She brings it, and Clooney, into the bedroom, where steam slips into the room under the bathroom door. Clooney immediately hops onto the end of the bed, flopping dramatically with a sigh and going back to sleep. Ellie sets the tea and cookies on the nightstand and ques up the new comedy they’ve been watching. 

When Derek comes out of the bathroom, Ellie watches him tense up seeing her, before forcing himself to relax and get into bed with her, patting a disgruntled Clooney. Ellie wordlessly hands him the tea and biscuits, letting him control the interactions to his comfort level. Whatever happened, it must have been bad. 

“Thank you Sweetheart.” He murmurs, taking a bite from a cookie and flickering his gaze up from Clooney long enough to look at Ellie with genuine gratefulness for a second. 

Ellie cautiously reaches out and covers his hand with her own. “Of course Baby, I’ve got you.” He squeezes her hand back just a shade too hard and takes a breath that is just a tad too sharp and Ellie knows that whatever happened on this case, it was bad. “I’m here for you Der.” 

He smiles halfheartedly at her gentle reminder. “I know Babydoll, I know you are. And I appreciate it.” He lets go of her hand to draw her tight into his side. She drops her head to his shoulder, taking a moment to selfishly enjoy his presence, no matter what form it comes in, it’s been a long week. 

“Do you want to talk about it?” The words are mumbled into his neck, but still audible, as Ellie snuggles into his side. Derek always smells like pine and leather, and Ellie has grown to find comfort in that scent combination. She idly hopes he’s found comfort in her smell, whatever that would be. 

Derek takes a deep, shaky breath and Ellie feels him shift to put his mug down. “There was this boy, he’d, he’d been kidnapped, for over eight years.” Ellie has to bite back a gasp and swallow against the sudden nausea. “He- we- I was the only one he trusted for the entire week, the first one he talked to, the only one that got him to come out of hiding.” His words are coming faster now, desperate to get them out of his head. “We, we went through a lot of the same shit, he-“ Derek chokes on his words “- Baby he tried to kill himself and- and I just- I-“ 

He cuts himself off with a sharp inhale, Ellie blinks back her own tears to push herself up and swing around to face him. Derek’s eyes are red, tears forcing themselves free and rolling silently down his cheeks towards trembling lips. “Jesus Honey, I’m- I’m so sorry.” She murmurs, reaching out to swipe away rapidly falling tears. Derek hiccups in a breath and shoves the heels of his hands into his eyes. 

“I just kept seeing myself, fifteen years old and sitting on the edge of my bed, staring down a razor and wondering if I cut just a little deeper, if the pain would stop forever.” He coughs, and it’s more of a sob than anything else. Ellie is quick to drag him into a hug, pulling his face into her shoulder and cradling his head. 

She squeezes her eyes shut, forcing her tears back and kissing his head. “Oh Der, Baby you’re both so strong for standing here right now okay? You’re both safe, those men can never hurt either of you ever again. You both won, sweetheart.” Derek clings tighter to her, and Ellie knows she’s said the right thing.

“I was so ashamed El” He whispers, shoulders heaving in silent sobs. Ellie rubs his back in soothing circles, stroking the back of his neck with her other thumb. She doesn’t say anything, knowing she doesn’t have to. Derek is good at working through his own mind, but it doesn’t mean he has to be alone while he does it. 

So she holds him. She sits and lets their teas go cold, lets the show finish, lets the light coming in through the window darken. She sits, and she holds him while he works through his head. She holds him when he finally breaks from being strong and lets out those sobs he’s been trying to hold back. She holds him tighter when he runs out of sobs and finally settles on soft sniffs and ragged breaths. 

She doesn’t even let go when his breaths even out and his body grows heavy on her shoulder, having finally exhausted himself. Instead, Ellie carefully maneuvers them so they’re both laying down. Derek doesn’t stir when she settles him onto her chest and pulls the blankets over them both. 

The first time she lets go is when the sunlight streams through their window in the early morning, when the man in her arms stirs and pulls himself up the bed just long enough to press a gentle kiss to her lips and drop his head back onto her shoulder. “Thank you.” 

“Anything for you.” She whispers back, reaching up to tap under his chin so he looks up again before kissing him again, but longer. 

He pulls away first, resting his forehead against hers and murmuring “what did I do to deserve you?” Ellie pulls him back down beside her, snuggling up close and resting her head over his chest, hearing his strong, steady heartbeat. 

“Baby, you survived.”


End file.
